PUTRAJAYA: The use of Pos Malaysia Bhd to deliver postal ballot papers to overseas voters in the 14th General Election (GE14) takes into account the aspect of transparency as it is a neutral party.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah said the measure was to ensure efficiency in the delivery of postal ballot papers to these voters.
“In this regard, the EC has been given the assurance by Pos Malaysia on aspects of security and confidentiality with all handling of shipment classified as registered post procedures using the Pos Laju network,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Recently, a news portal reported that a non-governmental organisation, Global Bersih, objected the EC’s move to use the services of Pos Malaysia to handle delivery of postal ballot papers to overseas voters and urged the EC to revert to using Wisma Putra to manage the overseas early voting process.
Mohd Hashim said the EC had been using Pos Malaysia’s services in delivering postal ballot papers for all by-elections being held after GE13 and during the 11th Sarawak state election which went smoothly without any hitches.
Mohd Hashim said through this approach, the voters would not need to take the ballot papers at the Malaysia Representative Office (Malawakil).
He said instead, the postal ballot papers were sent directly to the voters and they could return them immediately to the polling presiding officers for ballot counting.
The Pos Malaysia service only entailed the delivery of the postal ballot papers with cost to be borne by the EC while the marked ballot papers could be returned via any courier companies with the cost to be borne by the voters concerned, he said.
“The voters must also return the postal ballot papers to the polling presiding officer for counting before 5pm on the polling day,” he said, adding the voters would be provided with guidelines to mark the postal ballot papers properly.
He also advised them to refer to the EC for any enquiries by calling 03-88810081 or email to [email protected].
The EC has received 695 postal voting application from overseas since it opened on Jan 23 and the application would be closed on the day Parliament is dissolved, he added. — Bernama